Sir Kenny Dalglish: It’s all building up very nicely to the World Cup crunch

Just 39 sleeps to go until our World Cup showdown with the Ukraine at Hampden.

I know the days are just going to fly in.

And the great thing for Steve Clarke right now is that most of his squad are hitting top form.

Let’s hope they’re not peaking too soon!

Andy Robertson is still Mr Consistency at Liverpool.

Che Adams scored a brilliant headed winner for Southampton at Spurs in midweek, and got their equaliser at Old Trafford yesterday.

And his Scottish team-mate, Stuart Armstrong, netted a screamer against Coventry City in the FA Cup.

Despite having to play wearing a face mask, Callum McGregor has been different class for Celtic in the middle of the park and is leading by example.

Lewis Ferguson, Ryan Christie and new boy, Jacob Brown, were also finding the net for their clubs in midweek.

Wembley talisman, Billy Gilmour, came off the bench for Norwich City and has recovered from his injury, and while Ryan Jack has had a setback, he’s been back in for Rangers and shown he still has plenty to offer.

David Marshall is also back playing top-team football and has been performing well for QPR.

He has the ability and the mentality for the big occasion, and his return to action has given the manager another quality player to consider.

Then there’s John McGinn. He has been thriving under Steven Gerrard at Aston Villa, and now has the added bonus of working alongside Philippe Coutinho every day.

John will learn plenty from the Brazilian maestro. Philippe has dancing feet, and is technically-gifted to a level that is way above most players you could mention.

I’m certain John will be loving seeing his new team-mate operating at that level in training and in competitive games.

Philippe was outstanding against Leeds United last midweek in the 3-3 draw, and John will benefit from playing with him.

So, right now, players are on form, and the signs at the moment make me feel optimistic for the Ukraine showdown.

Steve and his backroom staff will be immersed in it right now, and that’s the way it will have been since the turn of the year.

They will be going through every piece of footage on the opposition, and tapping into their contacts books to get little nuggets of information on every Ukrainian.

Steve will probably have a list of around 34 or 35 names under serious consideration, to be whittled down to a squad of between 22 and 26 players.

It will give him sleepless nights, no doubt. But what a good place to be in.

While most of the Scotland players are all doing very well at club level just now, I accept that we must not take anything for granted. We need to hope our players stay fit, and performing regularly for their clubs.

We also know that the Tartan Army is right up for this one.

Hampden is sold-out and the buzz just now is as good as it’s been for many, many years.

I’ve always said that we have a better chance of being successful if we are pulling together on and off the park.

The Scotland fans were brilliant against Israel and Denmark. The atmosphere was electric.

We will need that again against Ukraine – but we will also need it if things aren’t going well.

If we go a goal down, or two or three players are struggling to get into the rhythm of the game, they will need help and encouragement from the Tartan Army.

A cheer for a player can lift his spirits, and get him out of the wee slump he may be in on the park.

Being supportive in adversity is more important than cheering when we are winning.

I hope that we are all in a good mood late on March 24, and heading into a Play-off Final against Wales or Austria five days later.

Right now, we have many reasons to be optimistic, but I’m not getting carried away or taking anything for granted.

A lot can happen in the next five weeks. We need to be ready – and Steve will make sure that we are.